The folktale of Robin Hood has a somewhat mixed history when it comes to Hollywood productions. Older films, like 1991’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and 1993’s follow-up spoof Robin Hood: Men in Tights still enjoy a long-standing popularity to this day, while more recent endeavours, such as the unimaginatively named 2010 production of Robin Hood, have almost immediately fallen by the wayside.
It could be argued that the reason for this is that the older films took pains to not take themselves too seriously. The story of Robin Hood, while well-loved, is, at heart, a little bit ridiculous and fits neatly into the niche of fairy tales with unambiguous heroes and villains. That’s fine for more carefree comedy-action pieces, but it completely falls apart when more modern adaptations try to put the story through Hollywood’s ‘gritty remake’ machine.
In this regard, 2018’s Robin Hood is possibly one of the most bizarre entries to ever grace the Hood pantheon. There’s enough light-hearted banter in the film to tilt it towards being a fun comedy-action romp, but that’s all buried amongst genuinely heavy topics like familial grief, child abuse, and war. The film seems to oscillate between these two extremes with such frequency and with so little warning that the viewer is left with a sort of emotional whiplash, ultimately walking away with very little idea about what tone the film was actually striving for.
That’s not to say that the film entirely fails at being either of the two genres it appears to be channeling. Parts of the film are, intentionally or not, quite funny and enjoyable to watch, while others manage to really drive home the darker angle of the story, largely propelled by the sheer acting talent on offer. Ben Mendelsohn in particular is punching well above the script he was given as the Sheriff of Nottingham – the ‘humans are the only species that fear death’ line was a personal highlight for complete ridiculousness – and his speech about his childhood in the church is a thoroughly gripping scene for all the right reasons. Alongside Taron Egerton’s natural charm and charisma and Jamie Foxx’s steely-eyed determination, watching the core cast is a genuine delight, despite the script’s many failings.
And there are many. The film has a surprising amount to say about politics and social structure, but it’s largely been boiled down to a general idea that war is bad and politicians will lie and oppress the people to get what they want. It’s not necessarily a message that shouldn’t be explored, but this film doesn’t feel like the medium through which to do it.
One of the core examples of this is how the film treats war. There are many parallels drawn between the film’s Holy Crusades and the current, real-world fighting in the Middle East, with Robin and his fellow soldiers clad in desert camouflage, the ‘Arab’ enemy, and mechanical crossbows that mimic machine gun fire. In some scenes, this parallel really works, most memorably when we see the Sheriff openly lying about the enemy during a speech to stir up hatred against an unseen foreign foe. The speech is uncomfortably close to those made by Nazis in the ‘40s, and even some that are heard today, and it’s probably the closest the film gets to making a clear, well-articulated statement about the villainy of war. However, when these scenes are almost immediately followed by ones in which Robin happily mows down guard after guard, when they were simply doing their job, the condemnation of violence rings a little hollow.
Setting the script aside, the film’s visuals are also a bit hit and miss. The anachronistic fashion adds a nice touch to scenes that would otherwise seem a bit drab, but the shaky CGI can completely shatter your immersion, particularly when computer generated shots have been cut together with obvious practical effects, as they are in the carriage chase through the mines. The sets are well detailed, if a little strange – the continuous flame spurts at the mines (which I’m pretty sure didn’t exist when I lived in Nottingham) had a curious habit of making the city feel like it was situated in Mordor, but they didn’t overly stand-out against the freeform style of the rest of the film.
All in all, there is a lot to enjoy in Robin Hood, especially when you focus on the truly stellar performances some of the cast have put in, but I fear it’s not going to be fondly remembered in the way that Prince of Thieves or Men in Tights have been. Perhaps when Hollywood next takes a swing at adapting the legend – in about ten years, if the current trend holds – that film will be able to learn from this one’s mistakes.
Nerd Talk 